I love red pandas. These house-cat-sized cuties spend most of their lives in trees of the temperate forests of the Himalayas. Despite their name and a penchant for bamboo, red pandas are thought to be more closely related to weasels or dogs than they are to Giant pandas. The exact placement of the red panda…
Early in the quarter, I wrote that becoming a writer felt like learning how to swim. Now, after two months of daily lessons, I’ve taken off my water wings and I’m happily paddling around. An experience this week showed me that I can still swim even if breaking news pushes me into the deep end…
My seven-year-old has been congested and coughing for a few days now. This morning when he complained that his chest hurt, I called to see if I could get him in to see the doctor. Surprisingly, we were able to get an appointment right away. A few hours later, we were in the examination room….
Many people have heard about the great migrations Monarch butterflies undergo each winter. But I had no idea what they did the rest of the year. It turns out that entire generations live and die before we see the next wave of migrants sweep through California. The Monarchs that we see during the winter migrations…
Among the lush pickings of memorable lines from the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite, one of the best is Kip’s to his brother: “Napoleon, don’t be jealous that I’ve been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I’m training to be a cage-fighter.” (Video from Hulu, if you’re rusty on the scene,…
My boyfriend always tells me video games are good for his mental health. I guess now I have to take him seriously. On November 23, The New York Times Science Times ran an article about research on the therapeutic benefits of virtual interaction. The central idea: “scientists have established a principle that is fundamental to…
In less than 100 days, my husband will be on his way home from Afghanistan. I didn’t say anything to the kids, because it just reminds them that he’s gone. And of course, there is always the possibility that the plan will change. Still, it’s a milestone, so for just this one day, I’m letting…
One day in the late 1980s, my friend S’mores and I were thrashing a rad quarter-pipe (skateboarding) at his house in the suburbs of Houston. S’mores’ Dad, responsible for a fleet of company cars, was reading about cleaning up spilled oil. He had put a research report titled “Enhanced Biodegradation of Aliphatic and Aromatic Hydrocarbons…
Yesterday, my boyfriend and I went to the iFly Indoor Skydiving Vertical Wind Tunnel in the East Bay for his birthday. I was a little nervous on our way there, but it turned out to be pretty easy and a lot of fun. After a quick lesson on body position, visitors get suited up in…
photo © 2008 hojusaram | more info (via: Wylio) I was reading the closing chapters of Zinsser’s “On Writing Well”. Zinsser has an uncanny knack of pointing out things that I hadn’t thought of before, but that seem obvious once he says them. His chapter on “Enjoyment, Fear and Confidence” is full of good advice….
